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	Number of Church Abuse Cases Rises The Copenhagen Post April 9, 2010 http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/48706-number-of-church-abuse-cases-rises.html Latest victim tells media that his offender is still a serving priest in the Danish Catholic Church The number of cases of child abuse reported to the Danish Catholic Church has risen to 17 and an 18th man has told media that he was abused by a priest who is still an active member of the church in Zealand. The man, known as Peter, is now in his 40s and told Berlingske Tidende newspaper of how he was molested as an altar boy more than 30 years ago. However, the statue of limitations has now run out on pursuing a criminal case against the alleged offender. Peter’s allegations are the first ones against a currently serving priest. Previous statements from church spokesman Niels Engelbrecht indicated that suspects in cases reported so far have either died or left the church. Peter had extensive counselling to help him with his trauma and it’s only now that he feels strong enough to go somewhat public with his story. On different occasions over a number of years the priest allegedly kissed and fondled Peter and also forced him to sleep in his bed and perform oral sex on him. When the paper contacted the alleged offender, the priest had no comment and directed them to speak with the church spokesman. Engelbrecht said today that he still doesn’t know the identity of the alleged offender and it would be irresponsible to guess which one of Denmark’s 79 Catholic priests it is. ‘The only decent thing to do is for the former altar boy to come forward with his complaint and name names. Tell us who has done what, and what occurred,’ Engelbrecht said. Meanwhile, Bishop Czelaw Kozon has said he is willing to open his private archive in an effort to help with the investigations into past child abuse. ‘There’s an archive that lawyers will be allowed to look at. It’s not the kind of archive that anyone can just look at as it can contain personally sensitive information,’ said Niels Messerschmidt, the bishop’s spokesman. Kozon met with Johan Reimann, head of Copenhagen Police, today and has agreed that all 17 abuse cases reported to the church committee so far will be handed over to police for investigation.
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